A DEVIZES builder with a string of criminal convictions accrued over the last ten years has been given one last chance to stay out of jail by magistrates in Swindon.

Mitchum Lee Chaise, 27, of Forty Acres Road, Devizes, appeared before the magistrates on Tuesday for unpaid fines and court costs going back to 2007 and amounting to almost £1,000.

The fines had been imposed by the courts for a total of 10 crimes ranging from shoplifting and obstructing a police officer in the execution of their duty to criminal damage and using threatening words or behaviour.

Of the £2,259 imposed in fines, compensation, court costs and victim surcharges, Chaise had paid £1,263 since June 2007, leaving an outstanding balance of £996.

The court heard that in December last year magistrates had imposed a prison sentence of 21 days, suspended for 12 months, on condition that Chaise pay off the balance at a rate of £40 a week.

Since then he had made the payments on just four occasions.

When asked by chairman of magistrates Amanda Lee on Tuesday why he had failed to make the payments every week as ordered, Chaise said he had no money.

He said his former employer had gone bust and he had been unemployed.

Chaise had, however, recently been offered a job at a building firm for which he had worked before and his take home pay would in future be £300 a week.

“I should have found work quicker and I should have signed on,” he told the bench.

Ordering Chaise to pay off his debt at £60 a week, the chairman told him: “You have had two goes at this and each time the bench has been understanding. I must stress, if this happens again there will be no discussion. You know where you will be going.”